Brothers create device to improve bystander CPR rates

John Di Capua, 22, and his brother Chris Di Capua, 18, have received a patent for a device they created to help improve the survival odds for people who suffer heart failure outside a hospital.
Tania Savayan, The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News

John Di Capua, 22, left, and his brother Chris 18, have received a patent for a device they created to help improve the survival odds for heart attack victims outside a hospital.(Photo: Tania Savayan/The Journal News)

ARMONK, N.Y. — What started as a high school science project for two brothers from New York is now a patented medical device that its creators hope will save people from sudden cardiac death.

The young men, John Di Capua Jr., 22, and his brother, Christopher, 18, set out to find a way to improve survival rates for people who suffer heart failure and receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation outside a hospital.

The odds of living through such a catastrophic event are dismal: less than 10 percent of people who get CPR from a bystander live to tell about it. Nearly 400,000 people every year — more than 1,000 each day — receive CPR from a bystander.

"We wanted to see if we could do something to improve bystander CPR survival rates through improved technique," John Di Capua said. "Even if we could improve the percentage slightly, it would mean a lot more lives are saved."

The result was a device they built themselves for less than $150 that automatically forces oxygen directly into the lungs of a person in cardiac arrest — eliminating the need for mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and freeing rescuers to do chest compression or use a defibrillator.

The young men designed the device using an oxygen canister, existing medical equipment and a control module that they built.

"People don't like doing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation," Chris Di Capua said. "That's one of the reasons bystander CPR has such a low success rate."

“People don't like doing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. That's one of the reasons bystander CPR has such a low success rate.”

Chris Di Capua, Armonk, N.Y.

Both Di Capua brothers set out to find a better way to perform CPR when they were in the Authentic Science Research program, a three-year project at Byram Hills High School.

John Di Capua was first. When he started the program in 2007, he compared three techniques to determine the best way to get air into the body: mouth-to-mouth ventilation; ventilation using a bag valve mask, a technique used in hospitals that requires a mask over the patient's mouth and a bag that is pumped manually, and an I-gel. The I-gel, generally used in a hospital, is a soft, silicone tube that can be inserted down the throat and over the larynx to form a secure airway.

His research showed that the I-gel was the easiest and most effective way for an untrained bystander to deliver air to the body.

That finding prompted him to create a device using the I-gel, connected to an oxygen canister and a battery-operated control panel that prompts the machine to pump 14 breathes per minute.

His work earned him a place as a semi-finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search.

Just as he was ready to graduate from Byram Hills High School in 2010, his brother, Chris, entered the program and picked up the research.

He finished designing the device and set out to discover if people would actually use it to give CPR. He showed untrained participants a video explaining how to use the device to perform CPR. Then he asked the participant to use it on a mannequin.

Brothers John Di Capua, 22, and Chris Di Capua, 18, created a medical device to help improve the survival odds for people who suffer from heart failure outside of the hospital. The device was originally a high school science project.(Photo: Tania Savayan, The Journal News)

"Most people could do it," he said.

His research also earned him a spot as a semi-finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search.

Other Byram Hills students who have gone through the Authentic Research Program have published their findings in academic journals, adviser David Keith said. But he's not aware of anyone other than the Di Capuas who have received a patent for their work.

"It's a real validation of what is latent in so many young people in terms of their intellectual horsepower and creativity and their willingness to work for something they believe in," he said.

John Di Capua just earned his undergraduate degree at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and will take a year to get his master's in public health there before medical school.

His brother just completed the first year of an eight-year program at Union College that will lead to an undergraduate degree, a master's in business administration and medical school.

They hope to interest a medical device company in their invention, which they call AVAC, Automatic Ventilation with Assisted Compressions.

The brothers would like to see their device paired with AEDs that are found in most public areas and used to revive people who experience sudden cardiac death. AEDS cost $1,500, while the Di Capua's device costs less than $150.